Television networks, such as the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Columbia Broadcasting Company (CBS), and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), have for years broadcast television shows to the masses as a means for generating revenue through advertising. For example, these networks produce television shows and then seek out sponsors to advertise on the shows. The television shows, or “content”, have designated timeslots in which the sponsors' advertisements, or “assets”, are inserted. The content and the inserted assets are then broadcast by the television networks, or “content owners”, to the public over federally licensed communication airways, occasionally referred to as linear video distribution.
This “shotgun” approach to advertising proved to be very successful in the beginning. However, as the number of advertisers wishing to sell their goods and services increased, television evolved into a much more complex system of communications. Today, cable television providers and satellite television providers (e.g., “content providers”) serve as intermediary content providers between the content owners and the intended public audience. And, the number of content owners has dramatically increased. In this regard, many members of the general public have signed on as customers of the cable/satellite content providers so as to receive a broader availability of content.
Because the market for content consumption has grown, the number of content providers has also grown. And, because each of these providers has its own method of content delivery, the manner in which the content and assets are delivered to the customers has become increasingly complex. Generally, the content owners deliver the content to the content providers with instructions to insert various national assets into the content at certain times. For example, if a company wishes to run a national advertisement campaign targeting a certain television show associated with a particular demographic, the company may purchase one or more timeslots, or “placement opportunities”, within that television show from the content owner to air assets advertising the goods and services of the company. The content owner then provides the content to each of the content providers with directions to insert the assets within the timeslots purchased by the company.
The content providers may also have certain timeslots available for inserting certain local assets. For example, a content provider may have “headends” configured in various communities to distribute content to their customers located therein. Each headend receives content from the content providers with various designated timeslots for inserting assets into the content. Some of those timeslots may be designated for local advertisements where companies within the service area of the headend wish to advertise. These companies purchase those timeslots from the content provider for insertion of their assets to expose the customers to their advertising at the more local level.
As complex as the cable/satellite television has become, certain devices have come along to change and/or circumvent these forms of marketing altogether. The digital recorder, such as that produced by Tivo, is one example of a means for avoiding the asset insertions of marketing strategists. With the digital recorder, the content providers' customers are able to digitally record entire episodes of content and view that content at their leisure, as opposed to a time established by the content providers. However, these customers can also use the digital recorders to fast-forward or skip through the assets without viewing them, much to the dismay of the asset owners.
In response, content providers started providing content on a “Content On Demand” (COD) basis, sometimes referred to as nonlinear video distribution. In COD, the content provider delivers the content to the content provider which in turn maintains the content for subsequent and individual distribution to their customers. Thus, a customer may select a desired content through a streaming media player, a smart phone, computer, or the like (collectively referred to herein as “user equipment” or “UE”) and watch that content at the customer's leisure. For example, a user wishing to access content on a smart phone through the internet may contact a website through a web browser to view that content on the user's smart phone. The website may then deliver the content to the user's web browser operating on the user's smart phone.
When the content provider delivers the content to the UE, monetization of the content is sought. For example, advertisers wishing to sell their goods and services may pay the content provider to deliver their advertisements with the content to the UE. And, the content provider, desiring to increase the revenue of the advertising may use an asset decision system (ADS) to determine which advertisements are most valuable in the content being delivered to the user's device.
Generally, when the content is delivered to the UE, the html or java programming of the UE is operable to generate and transmit a request message to the ADS asking which advertisements are to be provided with the content. However, software developers have devised ways to block the request messages and thereby prevent the ADS from delivering advertisements to the user's device.